Inteview with Jens Voigt

2008-09-22

German Jens Voigt one of the most experienced riders in the peloton has won 65. Tour de Pologne, riding for the last couple of seasons Team CSC - Saxo Bank. Voigt won the race thanks to brave solo attack on the hilly stage to Zakopane.
– It was good choise to change the race route after several years. So far I rode six TdP races that ended in Karpacz at Orlinek – there was high time for something new.

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Voigt triumphs, as Forster takes the stage

2008-09-20

German rider Jens Voigt from Team CSC - Saxo Bank has won 65. Tour de Pologne. Last stage of the race was won by from Wadowice to Kraków was won by his compatriot Robert Forster from Gerolsteiner.

Start of the last stage just like the ones of leg number four and six was changed due to poor weather conditions. Riders has eventually started from Wadowice not Rabka. There fore they had only some 100 kilometers to race.

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Hard-men Voigt third time lucky?

2008-09-19

Jens Voigt from Team CSC – Saxo Bank has won “Queen stage” of the 65. Tour de Pologne with finish in Zakopane. Finishing this stage – shorter than scheduled, but still hard due to weather conditions – on his own he became new race leader with just one undulating stage remaining. It's the third time Voigt fights for win in the TdP - he was second overall in 1999 and 2001 - and on this occasion he should achieve his goal.

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Roelandts wins, Rojas in yellow

2008-09-18

Belgian champion Jürgen Roelandts from Silence – Lotto has won fifth stage of the Tour de Pologne which finished with a sprint from 12-men group of riders that escaped from the bunch on the streets of Rzeszów. Second on the line was Spaniard Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil from Caisse d'Epargne who became new race leader since overnight leader Alan Davis came 12 seconds later in the peloton.

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Riders went on strike

2008-09-17

Due to riders protest on the finishing laps in Lublin stage results were annulled and therefore there was no winner of stage four in the 65th Tour de Pologne and no chanmges in the general standings of the race likewise.

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Davis comes back with win

2008-09-15

Australian sprinter Allan Davis from Quick Step has won second stage of the Tour de Pologne after strong finish he held off closest opponents such as Brazilian Murilo Fischer (Liquigas) and Italian Mirco Lorenzetto (Lampre). Fischer became new race leader since his team was four seconds faster on yesterday's time trial.

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Team CSC proves the strongest

2008-09-14

Danish Team CSC has clocked the fastest time over the quick, but technical 4 kilometers long course in the centre of Warsaw.

Danish time trial champion Lars Bak being the first rider over the line has taken yellow leader's jersey.

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Nations of the 65th Tour de Pologne

2008-09-13

Finally we can announce that 144 riders will start in the 65th Tour de Pologne, among them 10 Poles. The race will start today with 5 out of 19 teams not in a complete squads due to some late injuries or illnesses.

French team FDJ will start with just five riders, Gerolsteiner with six, while Euskaltel, Credit Agricole and AG2r all with seven. Main stars of the race are Olympic champion from Beiging: Fabien Cancellara and Samuel Sanchez plus second for the last two years in the Tour de France – Cadel Evans.

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National champions in TdP peloton

2008-09-12

In the peloton of the 65. Tour de Pologne we will see no less than 17 national champions. They all of course will be distinguished in the pack by their special jerseys with their national colors.

Champions from road races will have the right to wear such jerseys during all road stages – from second to seventh day of racing, while time trial champions will start in such jerseys only in the opening team time trial on Sunday.

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TdP stars constellation

2008-09-12

In the 65th Tour de Pologne peloton will count 152 riders from 18 best teams in the Word plus Nasiona team of Poland selected by Piotr Wadecki and riding under the name Polska-BGZ.

Final start-list will be announced on Saturday, but with almost 100% certainty we can already name some riders from constellation of stars that are going to start in the race.

Fabien Cancellara (Switzerland, CSC Saxo Bank): is gold (time trial) and bronze (road race) medalist from Olympic Games in Beiging. This year also won Tirreno – Adriatico and Milano – San Remo. In 2006 and 2007 was world time trial champion. Two years ago he also won „Queen of classics” Paris – Roubaix, while last year two stages in Tour de France and led this race for six days.

Samuel Sanchez (Spain, Euskaltel): olympic road race champion from Beiging Olympics. This year was seventh in the Tour de France, while last year was third in Vuelta a Espana winning three stages on the way.

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Polish team for Tour de Pologne

2008-09-11

Polish national team coach Piotr Wadecki has finally announced his eight-men squad for the 65th Tour de France. Team will be formed with 7 riders riding at the moment in Polish teams plus Adam Wadecki from Estonian team Kalev.

Dariusz Baranowski and Marek Rutkiewicz - both riders with very good record in TdP - are expected to be team's leaders for the general classification.

Full squad looks as follows:
Dariusz Baranowski (DHL-Author)
Bartłomiej Matysiak (Legia)
Marcin Sapa (DHL-Author)
Marek Rutkiewicz (Mroz-Action-Uniqa)
Łukasz Bodnar (DHL-Author)
Krzysztof Jezowski (CCC-Polsat Polkowice)
Tomasz Kiendys (CCC-Polsat Polkowice)
Adam Wadecki (Kalev Sport)

TdP to decide Pro Tour standings

2008-09-10

This season with races like Vuelta a Espana, Paris - Tours and Giro di Lombardia absent from Pro Tour calendar - Tour de Pologne will be Pro Tour decider. Action on route between Warsaw and Krakow will decide who will win fourth edition of the Pro Tour standings.

After recent German races: Deutschland Tour and Vattenfall Cyclassics Alejandro Valverde and his team Caisse d'Epargne leads the series. At the moment though Spaniard is racing in his home race - La Vuelta which this season doesn't count for Pro Tour standings.

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TdP in Eurosport 2

2008-09-10

Eurosport 2 will be European Media Patron of the 65th edition of the Tour de Pologne and will be doing direct coverage from all stages of our race - starting from 15:00 everyday. Polish commentary will be done by Tomasz Jaronski and Stanislaw Brzosko.

Thanks to the Eurosport 2 this biggest sporting event in Poland will be transmitted to no less than 32 million homes in 46 European countries. Coverage will be done in eleven language versions and thanks to this many viewers cross Europe will learn many details about Poland, its cities oand regions where the race will go through.

Tour de Pologne photo-book

2008-09-09

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Early-eleven from Polish coach

2008-09-08

Blazej Janiaczyk (Mroz Action Uniqa), Dariusz Baranowski (DHL Author), Bartlomiej Matysiak (Legia), Marcin Sapa (DHL Author), Marek Rutkiewicz (Mroz Action Uniqa), Bartosz Huzarski (Mroz Action Uniqa), Lukasz Bodnar (DHL Author), Krzysztof Jezowski (CCC Polsat Polkowice), Tomasz Kiendys (CCC Polsat Polkowice), Adam Wadecki (Kalev), Mariusz Witecki (Mroz Action Uniqa) - such 11-names long list of riders has been just pre-selected by national coach Piotr Wadecki a week before the start of the Tour de Pologne.

Among the upper mentioned list of riders one can find experienced Dariusz Baranowski who before his long professional career with teams like: US Postal, Banesto or Liberty Seguros won three TdP edition in a row from 1991 to 1993. In his best years Baranowski finished 12th both in Tour de France (1998) and Giro d'Italia (in 2003 while riding for CCC-Polsat).

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Riders in form - from German roads

2008-09-08

Riders in-form will come to Poland from the other side of our western border. Last weekend two Pro Tour races took place there, with Deutschland Tour finish in Bremen on Saturday and Vattenfall Cyclassic one-day event on Sunday in Hamburg.

Deuschland Tour was won by young duel of Team Colombia riders. Linus Gerdemann took the highest honors ahead of his Swedish colleague Thomas Lovkvist. Third place overall went to Slovenian Janez Brajkovic from Astana who is also set to start in TdP.

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Interview with Czeslaw Lang

2008-09-07

Just one week remains to the start of the Tour de Pologne with its triple anniversary: 80 years since the race birth, 65th edition and 15 years since Czesław Lang took over the charge on this race.

Week before the start everything is well prepared with only some minor issues to be solved. I'm sure this race will be our next success - said Lang.

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Gutierrez & Sanchez to lead Caisse d'Epargne

2008-09-05

Although its superstar Alejandro Valverde is riding La Vuelta at the moment neverthanless Caisse d’Epargne will come to Poland in a strong line-up with time trialist Jose Ivan Gutierrez among others.

Gutierrez took silver medal in World Championships time trial in Madrid three years ago.

He also won Pro Tour’s – Eneco Tour for the last two seasons and in 2003 prestigious Italian semi-classic Giro dell’Emilia.
In the 2004 edition of the TdP he was second in time trial up to Orlinek.

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Liquigas with well known leaders

2008-09-04

Team Liquigas just like last Lear will start in the Tour de Pologne under double name of Liquigas-Gaspol since Gaspol is Polish brand under which Liquigas products are sold in the country.

Liquigas-Gaspol leader should be Franco Pellizotti. “Dolphin from Bibbione” as he’s known in the Italian peloton rode a very strong Giro d’Italia this season leading for a four days, then taking mountain time trial win at Plan de Corones, while finally finishing whole race at fourth place – just two seconds of the podium.

Franco is also well known to the Polish cycling fans since he won TdP stage in Szklarska Poręba in 2002 after brave solo breakaway, and then finished the race third overall two years later. In the Giro he won a stage also in 2006 at Peschici plus several times took a place in the top-10 overall: 8th in 2006 and 9th in 2003 & 2007.

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Colombia with Gerdemann

2008-09-03

Team Columbia which at this very moment dominates Deutschland Tour will arrive for the Tour de Pologne with its very strong and young squad.

Linus Gerdemann, new great hope of German cycling is currently in great form winning after winning Italian event Coppa Agostoni two weeks ago he now leads D-Tour after six days of racing. Last year he won mountain stage of the Tour de France and led Le Tour for one day.

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CSC-Saxo Bank brings Dream Team

2008-09-02

That will be true dream-team on our Road his September. Danish team of CSC - Saxo Bank that won Pro Tour standings for last three years and is widely considered as the best team in the world. What’s more this team will bring to Poland its very best riders (almost all of them except for TdF winner Carlos Sastre riding at the moment in his home tour – Vuelta a Espana).

It’s hard to point one clear leader in the super-strong line-up of CSC, but for certain Swiss time trial specialist Fabian Cancellara might the team’s main star. Cancellara is double world champion in time trial from 2006 & 2007, while last month he won Olympic gold medal in his discipline plus bronze medal in the road race. This season “Spartacus” as he’s known in the professional peloton also won Tirrento – Adriatico stage race and Milano – San Remo classic.

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Pro Tour license extended till 2012

2008-08-30

Yesterday Intenational Cycling Union (UCI) has extended by 4 more seasons Pro Tour licenses previously given to five races of the series: Tour de Pologne, Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco, Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, Clasica Cicista San Sebastian and GP Ouest France-Plouay. Next year all these races will form part of the new " world calendar" together with other Pro Tour races and "historic" races run by ASO, RCS Sports and Unipublic such as 3 Grand Tours and among others four monument classics.

UCI’s official statement on that matter looks as follows :

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Evans & Van Summeren to silence all their rivals?

2008-08-28

Australian Cadel Evans runner-up in two recent editions of the Tour de France will lead strong Silence-Lotto challenge to win 65th Tour de Pologne. After tough summer with starts in Dauphine Libere, Tour de France and Olympic Games Evans have chosen TdP over Vuelta to show his stage race abilities in the month of September.

It’s worth to mention that Cadel won Pro Tour ranking last season, and finished second overall in Tour de Pologne in 2006. This month he was fifth in Olympic time trial on the tough course near Chinese Great Wall.

Silence team will come to Poland in a very strong line-up with last year winner Johan Van Summeren who will wear no. 1 on his back as cycling tradition demands.

Apart from Evans and Van Summeren we should also see experienced Mario Aerts who was eight in Olympic road race and his former winner of the hilly-classic Fleche Wallone in 2002. Speaking of classic specialist on pre-race list there is also Leif Hoste three times second in Ronde van

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Devolder to lead Quick Step

2008-08-27

Winner of the Ronde van Vlaanderen Stijn Devolder will lead Quick Step in the 65th Tour de Pologne. Belgian is one of the most universal riders in the modern peloton. He is capable of winning the monument northern classic, but in the same can win mountainous stage race like Tour of Austria last year. It's worth to mention that Devolder finished 11th in Vuelta a Espana 2006 and 3rd in Tour de Suisse 2007. He's also very strong against the clock so it's no wonder that great Lance Armstrong see him as a potential winner of the Tour de France!

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Szmyd comes back to Tour de Pologne

2008-08-26

Sylwester Szmyd will start in the 65th Tour de Pologne. Climber from Lampre team will make come back on Polish roads after long seven years of absence. “Sylwas” who is undoubtely the best known Polish cyclist in international peloton has already started in the Tour de Pologne in 2001 during his first season in the professional ranks. He then finished the race at sixth place overall. Since then Szmyd rode in no less than 13 Grand Tours (7 x Giro d’Italia, 5 x Vuelta a Espana & 1 x Tour de France) finishing all of them. The best result achieved in the 2006 season coming 19th in Giro and 14th in Vuelta. This year he finished 23rd in the Giro and 26th in the Tour – in both races being key-mountain domestique for Lampre leaders Marzio Bruseghin and Damiano Cunego.

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UCI & ASO agreement

2008-08-18

President of the UCI – Pat McQuaid during press conference held in Beijing announced new structure of the professional road cycling. New idea is the outcome of the negations which have taken place in the recent weeks between UCI and EPA (Editions Philippe Amaury – owner of the ASO and Societe du Tour de France).

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Polish fans national team

2008-08-17

During last two weeks on the forum run by Pro-Cycling.org website all fans of cycling could pick their eight riders who should represent our country in the 65th Tour de Pologne.

Pro-cycling readers gave more than 900 votes, and Przemyslaw Niemiec and Marek Rutkiewicz.gained the biggest number of most supporters.

If Polish national coach Piotr Wadecki was to choose his team by the outcome of this voting other places in the team would be taken by: Tomasz Marczynski, Dariusz Baranowski, Lukasz Bodnar, Jacek Morajko, Bartosz Huzarski and current Polish road race champion Marcin Sapa.

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Olympic champions in TdP

2008-08-16

Both Olympic champions from Beijing are set to start in the 65th Tour de Pologne. Samuel Sanchez and Fabian Cancellara, both figure in the Euskatel and Team CSC squads submitted for our national tour.
Cancellara not only won olympic gold medal in his great speciality, which is individual time trial, but also took the bronze medal in the road race held few days earlier on a hilly course by the Chinese Great Wall. This race won by Sanchez in 6-men sprint.
„Cancellara already rode in our race, and said that TdP is a great event. I’m also satisfied that Sanchez will debut on our roads. It’s a very interesting rider, and route of the TdP should suit him well” – said race director Czesław Lang.

Sylwester Szmyd has signed for Liquigas

2008-08-04

Sylwester Szmyd after a good ride in the Tour de France has recently signed a contract with Italia team Liquigas for the 2009 season. Previously we should see our best climber at the Tour de Pologne route riding for his current Lampre team.

Liquigas management has noted Szmyd's climbing abilities on the number of occasions during last couple of years, in the Giro d'Italia and other mountainous stage-races. Liquigas is one of the strongest teams in the world. Last season they're ranked second in Pro Tour's teams classification, losing only to Team CSC.

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Polish team early selection

2008-08-01

Polish national coach Piotr Wadecki have recently announced 18-names long list from the previous number of 25 candidates for the place in the national team for the 65. Tour de Pologne. In the coming month eight of the now selected 18 riders will be finally chosen to represent Poland in the TdP. They'll ride under the name of Polska-BGZ team.

'After long thought I've chosen these eighteen riders, and by the 25th of August I'll choose the best eight of them plus four others as reserves. Such twelve riders will then take part on the 10-day training session in Zieleniec (Sudety mountains) starting from September the 2th' - said Piotr Wadeck

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Pat Mc Quaid official letter

2008-07-21

Cycling witness impressive phase of growth, and Pro Tour is without doubt the most valuable tool in our possession to secure ambitious goal which is to secure high and respected position for our sport.

Big success of this year’s Tour Down Under which was the first UCI Pro Tour race in 2008 season showed that the way to the globalization of the cycling sport has started and it the future such decisions will make cycling more popular on global level.

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Rutkiewicz wins in China

2008-07-17

Marek Rutkiewicz from Mróz Action Uniqa team won the sixth stage of the 2.HC ranked race Tour of Qinghai Lake. 27-year old rider from Mróz team, which in China rides under the name of Polish National Team sponsored by BGZ Bank at the finish of 115 kms leg from Guide to Xining beat American Tyler Hamilton from team Rock Racing and current race leader Iranian Hossein Askari. Rutkiewicz is strong candidate to start 65. Tour de Pologne in the line-up of Polish National team his September.

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Lang's opinion on the Pro Tour future

2008-07-16

Cycling Pro Tour still exist but we will have to wait and see in what format it will survive. Declaration of the Pro Tour teams changes nothing - said TdP director Czesław Lang asked for the comment on the Tuesday's decision made by 17 teams from elite racing league that have just announced they won't be trying Pro Tour licenses for the next season.

- 'Four years ago no less than 180 national federation from UCI organization decided to create Pro Tour system I think that French battle with the UCI won't ruin this after all even if not cycling teams are also part of this conflict. In my opinion best cycling teams will still come to race for Pro Tour races in Germany (Deutschland Tour) or Poland (Tour de Pologne) or even to the new races in PT calendar in Russia or USA.

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